91% of plastic is NOT recycled
Sam Wainright offers George Bailey an opportunity to get in on the “ground floor” of plastics in the classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” from 1946. “The future is plastics!” is a famous part of the script from the movie “The Graduate,” 1967. A group of somewhat shallow teenagers who worried about appearances and superficial things were known as “the plastics” in the movie “Mean Girls,” (2004).
There are no few references to plastics in past and contemporary culture. Plastic is a substance – a synthetic polymer – AND, plastic is a cultural reference to that which is cheap, artificial, and temporary, etc. While the latter may be true on one level, plastic has made many people very rich, plastics are everywhere, and as we are learning now, plastics are not temporary.
There is a huge body of floating plastic located in the South Pacific ocean. The garbage covers an area twice the size of the state of Texas! This massive area of “throw away” plastics will require much time and money to clean up. How can we avoid creating more plastic garbage in the oceans, lakes and rivers of the world?
Plastic recycling has been promoted for several decades now and yet, 91% of plastic is NOT recycled. Unrecycled material sits in storage or landfills around the world with no process or desire to recycle it. “All used plastic can be turned into new things, but picking it up, sorting it out and melting it down is expensive. Plastic also degrades each time it is reused, meaning it can’t be reused more than once or twice…On the other hand, new plastic is cheap. It’s made from oil and gas, and it’s almost always less expensive and of better quality to just start fresh…Analysts now expect plastic production to triple by 2050.” (my emphasis) (https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled.)
In the PBS FRONTLINE documentary, in collaboration with NPR, the investigators learned that the plastics industry had promoted a simple strategy: “If the public thinks the recycling is working, then they’re not going to be as concerned about the environment,” said Larry Thomas, the head of the plastic industry lobby group in the 1970’s and 80’s. (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/what-plastic-types-to-recycle/)
Of course, we have been hearing the mantra: “recycle, reuse, reduce” for many years. This is true for all types of materials. But, with plastics, we ought to be moving toward “reduce, or DO NOT USE!” Plastics are forever. We now know that humans and animals are consuming micro plastics in foods and beverages. Results? Scientists are finding plastics in all parts of our environment as well as in human beings. In faith, we refer to our environment as “Our Common Home.” As followers of Christ, as children of God, as brothers and sisters we must reconsider our relationship with plastics.
Peace, Fr. Andy